The following is a statement offered in opposition to the so-called Secure Communities program. It was delivered at a press conference at the Church of the Covenant on Newbury Street in Boston as part of a panel speaking in support of immigrant rights and in also addressing recent acts of discrimination in Milford, Massachusetts. Links to resulting coverage appear at the bottom.
I’m Rev. Wendy von Zirpolo, minister at the UU Church of Marblehead and engaged with the Standing on the Side of Love Campaign and UU Mass Action. The Standing on the Side of Love campaign is our Unitarian Universalist activism and outreach program that addresses issues of oppression all over the country and world. UUMass Action mobilizes Unitarian Universalists in justice making activities.
I also lost niece to a drunk driver in the year 2000, on the day she was engaged. She was 24. My heart is still broken from the violence of that incident. To the family of Matthew Denice my heart travels with you. I know that your pain will not end. But I also know the violence we condone and create through Secure Communities is not the answer. This is not simply about Milford or even Massachusetts. There is a storm brewing in our country, fueled by fear and delivering hate. The storm takes incidents such as these, entwines them with the collective challenges of our economy and seeks to separate us. It scapegoats and criminalizes entire communities and identity groups. It calls it patriotism and promises safety. It is a lie.
The truth about Secure Communities and hate-based legislation in Arizona, Alabama, Georgia and other places is that they create violence. Violence against entire families who are ripped apart, at times one parent delivered across the border in one town, another miles away and a child dropped in yet another town. A child. The violence we create on both sides of the border is seen in horrific abuses of men, women and children, in our name and with our dollars. I’ve been to Arizona, met the people, heard the stories. But the violence does not stop there, it begins here with the profiling.
Just two months ago, Mario, his wife and child in a stroller, were walking on Water Street. They was verbally assaulted by youth in a passing vehicle. A few blocks later, on School Street, another vehicle drove by and a water bottle was hurled at the family. Hurled at a child in a stroller.
Miguel was stopped in Milford by police, who took his out of state driver’s license. When he went back to the station to get his license they said it was lost. Late, police admitted this was not legal and encouraged others to report such incidents, to them.
In another incident, a Guatemalan man was working on a roofing site with Americans and other Hispanics, when a police officer stopped his cruiser, and started to insult them, saying “Go home to your countries!” The Americans went down to talk to the police officer and asked why he was doing that. He left. The Latinos were surprised and confused to be to be insulted by a policeman while working at a job that improves the community.
Another latino shared “My neighbors were never very nice with us, But ever since the accident, they have been throwing garbage and boxes onto our patio, on top of our cars, and inside our deck. They encouraged their dogs to bark at us when we were passing by, and for a few days they left their angry dog with our first floor neighbor tied to our deck, intimidating us every time we had to go in or out of our house. Even their children yelled at my wife and friends to ‘Get out of here!’ ’Go inside!’
These are the more polite stories. There are so many more. We are called to see this storm of hate-based legislation and programming for what it is. The so-called Secure Communities program is anything but secure. It harkens back to a time when Sundown Communities practiced racism openly and proudly. That isn’t who we claim to be. Even in the presence of sadness and grief, we are so much better. So much smarter. With courage and compassion, everyone, please say ‘no’ to Secure Communities.
I also lost niece to a drunk driver in the year 2000, on the day she was engaged. She was 24. My heart is still broken from the violence of that incident. To the family of Matthew Denice my heart travels with you. I know that your pain will not end. But I also know the violence we condone and create through Secure Communities is not the answer. This is not simply about Milford or even Massachusetts. There is a storm brewing in our country, fueled by fear and delivering hate. The storm takes incidents such as these, entwines them with the collective challenges of our economy and seeks to separate us. It scapegoats and criminalizes entire communities and identity groups. It calls it patriotism and promises safety. It is a lie.
The truth about Secure Communities and hate-based legislation in Arizona, Alabama, Georgia and other places is that they create violence. Violence against entire families who are ripped apart, at times one parent delivered across the border in one town, another miles away and a child dropped in yet another town. A child. The violence we create on both sides of the border is seen in horrific abuses of men, women and children, in our name and with our dollars. I’ve been to Arizona, met the people, heard the stories. But the violence does not stop there, it begins here with the profiling.
Just two months ago, Mario, his wife and child in a stroller, were walking on Water Street. They was verbally assaulted by youth in a passing vehicle. A few blocks later, on School Street, another vehicle drove by and a water bottle was hurled at the family. Hurled at a child in a stroller.
Miguel was stopped in Milford by police, who took his out of state driver’s license. When he went back to the station to get his license they said it was lost. Late, police admitted this was not legal and encouraged others to report such incidents, to them.
In another incident, a Guatemalan man was working on a roofing site with Americans and other Hispanics, when a police officer stopped his cruiser, and started to insult them, saying “Go home to your countries!” The Americans went down to talk to the police officer and asked why he was doing that. He left. The Latinos were surprised and confused to be to be insulted by a policeman while working at a job that improves the community.
Another latino shared “My neighbors were never very nice with us, But ever since the accident, they have been throwing garbage and boxes onto our patio, on top of our cars, and inside our deck. They encouraged their dogs to bark at us when we were passing by, and for a few days they left their angry dog with our first floor neighbor tied to our deck, intimidating us every time we had to go in or out of our house. Even their children yelled at my wife and friends to ‘Get out of here!’ ’Go inside!’
These are the more polite stories. There are so many more. We are called to see this storm of hate-based legislation and programming for what it is. The so-called Secure Communities program is anything but secure. It harkens back to a time when Sundown Communities practiced racism openly and proudly. That isn’t who we claim to be. Even in the presence of sadness and grief, we are so much better. So much smarter. With courage and compassion, everyone, please say ‘no’ to Secure Communities.
1. Coverage in The Worcester Telegram: http://www.telegram.com/article/20111108/NEWS/111109485/1116
2. Coverage from the UUA Standing on the Side of Love Campaign: http://www.standingonthesideoflove.org/blog/uu-ministers-participate-in-boston-press-conference-to-support-immigrants-in-massachusetts/
3. UU Mass Action site: http://uumassaction.org/node/322
4. State House News Service Article
From: State House News Service [mailto:news@statehousenews.com]
Sent: Monday, November 07, 2011 5:33 PM
To: NEWS@STATEHOUSENEWS.COM
Subject: ACTIVISTS URGE OFFICIALS TO DENOUNCE BACKLASH AGAINST IMMIGRANTS
Sent: Monday, November 07, 2011 5:33 PM
To: NEWS@STATEHOUSENEWS.COM
Subject: ACTIVISTS URGE OFFICIALS TO DENOUNCE BACKLASH AGAINST IMMIGRANTS
ACTIVISTS URGE OFFICIALS TO DENOUNCE BACKLASH AGAINST IMMIGRANTS
By Kyle Cheney
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE
BOSTON, NOV. 7, 2011…..Foreign-born residents of Milford have seen car windows smashed, been accosted while walking down the street and been the subject of xenophobic hostility that erupted following the death of a local man, allegedly at the hands of a drunk-driving illegal immigrant, Boston-area religious leaders said Monday.
“It’s un-American, it’s unpatriotic, it’s undemocratic and it needs to stop now,” said Rev. Hurmon Hamilton, president of the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization, at a press conference alongside other local pastors and advocates for immigrants at the Church of the Covenant on Newbury Street. “Brutalizing the defenseless, scandalizing the vulnerable and terrorizing the innocent simply because of the color of their skin or where you think that they have come from will not produce a national immigrant policy.”
At the press conference advocates for immigrants – from Amnesty International, the Massachusetts Immigrants and Refugee Advocacy Coalition and various religious congregations – argued that a frenzy sparked by press coverage and the tone struck by some public officials has created an atmosphere of terror in immigrant communities that worsens public safety. Battered women who are undocumented are afraid to seek help, and those in need of medical attention refuse to go to hospitals for fear of deportation.
“Our press is at fault and our public officials are at fault here for not speaking up and speaking up in defense of simple fairness,” said Joshua Rubenstein, northeast regional director of Amnesty International.
One pastor, Rev. Terry Burke of the Unitarian Universalist First Church in Jamaica Plain, said that the fear had grown pitched in some communities that religious groups have sought to organize group trips for immigrants to the grocery store to ensure protection.
The press conference came just minutes after the state Senate referred a bill to crack down on illegal immigration to the Committee on the Judiciary. The bill, sponsored by Sen. Richard Moore (D-Uxbridge) and Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr, was inspired in part by the death of 23-year-old Matthew Denice, who was struck and killed in Milford by a vehicle allegedly driven by an intoxicated illegal immigrant. Backers suggested Denice’s death could prompt action on the proposal in the Legislature.
The bill would require individuals appearing in court for various civil and criminal violations to have their immigration status verified. Companies found to employ illegal immigrants would be debarred from bidding on state contracts and could face sanctions, attendees of public colleges and universities would be required to verify their immigration status before obtaining in-state tuition rates, and applicants for public housing, family assistance or college grants would also be checked for legal residency.
The bill also tightens motor vehicle registration requirements by requiring a Social Security card or tax ID number, and stiffens penalties for driving without a license. Under the new penalties, driving without a license would carry a $500 penalty on a first offense - increased from $100 - and carry the potential for jail time on any subsequent offense. Drivers repeatedly caught without a license could face forfeiture of their vehicle after the third offense. Penalties for creating, disseminating or using false identification would also be increased, and the Patrick administration would also be required to submit a report describing hurdles to expanding license-plate reading technology currently in place in 16 communities.
Tarr and Moore did not respond to requests for comment. Both have previously described the bill as a bid to enhance safety for Massachusetts residents.
“This has got to end,” Sen. Richard Moore said at a State House event in September, flanked by a bipartisan group of lawmakers. “We need to look both at making our streets safer, and we need to make sure those things like illegal jobs, benefits perhaps that draw people to this state are reserved for those who truly need them who are residents of the Commonwealth.”
"Enough is enough,” Tarr said at the time. “We continue to see those who will abuse the laws of the Commonwealth threaten public safety, abuse public resources and divert government from its principal purpose, which is to protect public safety and to ensure that precious taxpayer dollars, particularly in one of the most difficult recessions in recent memory, are spent appropriately on citizens that deserve them."
At Monday’s press conference, Shannon Erwin, state policy director for the MIRA Coalition, said that despite public sentiment that favors a crackdown on illegal immigration, communities that have seen immigration increase in recent years have seen corresponding decreases in crime, which she said is largely a result of community policing and the willingness of immigrants to report crime. Erwin added that although the driver in the Milford incident was drunk, Massachusetts lawmakers are considering a proposal that could reintroduce free or discounted drinks at bars and restaurants across the state.
“[The immigration bill] was filed and explicitly tied to the recent drunk driving incident in Milford. However, it has 24 broad-ranging provisions, most of which have nothing to do with crimes but would instead make immigrants’ lives more difficult,” she said, adding, “It’s time that politicians in this state stop trying to score political points by scapegoating immigrants … It’s time that they state publicly that the cruel behavior you heard about today has no place in the commonwealth.”
Advocates appealed to religious sentiments – and historical ones – to encourage acceptance of undocumented immigrants.
“We should remember that Christopher Columbus was an undocumented immigrant. We should remember that William Bradford, the one who came on the Mayflower and the founder of the Plymouth colony, was an undocumented immigrant. We should remember that the millions of African American slaves who were brought here on ships were not only undocumented immigrants, but they were treated much like those who are now here in Boston and across the country,” Hamilton said.
Special ire was reserved by advocates for Secure Communities, a program operated by the Obama administration aimed at checking the immigration status of arrestees’ using a federal database. Backers say the program is a critical tool for law enforcement to root out illegal immigrants who commit serious crimes, but critics argue that it encourages profiling and breaks up communities.
Rev. Wendy von Zirpolo of the Unitarian Universalist Church in Marblehead, called Secure Communities a “hate-based” program that she said encourages “violence against entire families.”
The program is slated to be activated nationally by 2013 and is already online in about half of the law enforcement jurisdictions in the country, but Gov. Deval Patrick has faced sharp criticism, mainly from Republicans, for his hesitance to embrace the program.
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